Memories
by Ryan.L8
Summary: Joel and Ellie are still on the road after the events at the Hospital. With Ellie still in the dark about the events that went on that day, Joel tries to keep her happy for as long as he can. But the world has different plans.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi, i'm Ryan, i'm 15 years old and live in the UK. I don't usually do this sort of thing, but I felt like I needed to write my own story for The Last of Us as it made such a large impression on me. Anyway, enjoy the first, small, but snappy chapter in 'Memories'. Please give me your opinion on how i'm doing.**

* * *

Memories

Joel could feel his concentration drifting, he shook his head in a weak attempt to stay conscious. He could feel his side becoming numb and his shirt becoming damp with blood. Joel dropped down to one knee and grunted heavily in pain. Joel tried to pull himself up put the pain overcame him and he slipped down, landing hard on his hands.

"Joel, holy sh…"

Joel's arms gave way, and his head hit the ground with a thud.

* * *

"Ellie, wait up!"

Joel began to jog quickly after Ellie who had just turned around the corner of the abandoned book store. Joel and Ellie were travelling through what used to be the state of Montana, in a town called Lodge Grass. It was never the plan to leave Tommy's town after they had arrived, but Joel and Ellie both struggled to settle into a normal life, and after multiple incidents they both decided it was best to leave and continue to travel across the USA.

"Ellie?" Joel called out, a touch of worry in his voice.

"I'm in here!" Ellie called out from the inside of a small building.

Joel shook his head as he walked through the door, Ellie was picking through a pile of books, looking for anything worth reading. She wore the same pair of shoes as she always had, even though they were starting to rip and the original colour of them was unidentifiable. A pair of dark blue jeans that she has found still packaged complimented them well, as much as a piece of clothing could do now. She was still wearing the red and black flannel shirt that Joel had given to her before the reached Jackson. Together in their flannel shirts Joel and Ellie looked like that had been together since birth.

"What did I tell you about running off without me, we don't know what could be around here…"

"Pshhhh" Ellie cut off Joel mid-sentence, she knew exactly what he was going to say, she turned in his direction and grinned.

"Alright, we need to find somewhere to sleep for the night." Joel stated as he flipped the switch on his flashlight.

Dark was approaching quickly, the days were getting shorter as winter approached, Joel knew he needed to find somewhere to stay for a while, to stock up on supplies and stay for the winter. He felt a twitch of anger inside him just thinking of last winter, when he had been on the edge of death, while he couldn't protect Ellie from what she was being exposed to.

"Hey, take a look at this!" Ellie shouted from inside the next room, snapping Joel back to reality.

"I'm coming!" Joel walked through the door way to see Ellie standing in the middle of the room, smiling successfully. The room looked like it hadn't been touched since the day the infection had first hit, everything was still in place, and the only way you could tell that it hadn't been touched for 20 years was by the faded colours and the smell. There were two large brown sofas in the room, as well as table in the middle.

"Well, what do you think?" Ellie asked impatiently.

"Looks like somewhere we could stay for the night, or maybe a few more depending on what we find"

"I like it, maybe we could fortify the place and stay here for a while, and it's got an upstairs and everything." Ellie added.

"Slow down there, we don't know what we might find around here, we can't be the only people around here" Joel said, crushing Ellie's dreams instantly.

"I know, I just thought it might be nice" Ellie said, not bothering to look up from the ground.

"Ok, set up the beds for tonight, I'll be back in a minute." Joel told Ellie.

Joel walked back to the front entrance of the store and forced the door closed, he notice a nearby book shelf and pushed it against the door, stopping anyone from getting inside without making a lot of noise. The rest of the room was secure, all the windows boarded up. As Joel walked through the door back to Ellie, he pulled out the key which she must have found in the room to unlock the door. Once he had walked through he pulled the door closed and turned the lock, securing the room.


	2. Chapter 2

**I know it's been ages since I updated this story but I've been really busy for the past few months. But now I'm ready to get back into it and hopefully update it regularly**

* * *

Ellie opened her eyes gradually, glad to finally have a good night sleep, as she sat up she let out a small squeak, stretching at the same time.

"Joel?" She asked inquisitively.

"I'm just upstairs checking things out, gimme a sec." he replied.

A few minutes later after Ellie had got up, Joel made his way back downstairs, carrying a small leaflet that most likely came from a travel agents. On the back was a map of the town, showing shops, hotels and other notable places.

"Ellie, I'm going to go look around the area for some supplies, but I need you to stay here and look after things here." Joel instructed.

"Joel, no that's not fair, we alw-" Ellie began to reply as Joel cut her off.

"No, this place is important, I'll be fine. I won't be long I promise" Joel began to walk towards the door. "Don't go wandering off" then Joel closed the door behind him. Leaving Ellie by herself.

"Now what the hell am I gonna do?" Ellie asked out loud.

Ellie slumped down on the large sofa in the corner of the room, after a few minutes of sulking, she decided to use the time to search through and clean out her bag, which was slowly starting to fall apart. No matter how much Joel tried she would never switch out her old bag, too many memories were attached to the keyrings and marks on her bag from when she was still with Riley, back at the zone. It seemed such a long time ago, but the memories from their last day together was still raw.

Ellie started to pull different items out of her bag, most of them were vital to their survival, others not so necessary but all the same still valued. As she was brushing her hand across the side of her bag, she found a pocket she hadn't touched for a very long time. Ellie reached inside and found a small book, she knew what it was but couldn't bear to open it.

"Come on, pull yourself together Ellie" She told herself, but not believing any of the words.

* * *

Joel was currently walking down a small alley, on edge in case any infected were hiding in a dark corner, he knew an encounter this close in an alley would probably be fatal. A few tense seconds later Joel reached the end of the alley, and could now see the back door to the shop he was trying to get into. After just trying the front door and finding it barricaded shut, he was hoping to find a decent stash of supplies inside.

Joel tried the handle to the door, but unsurprisingly it was locked. Joel put all his strength into kicking the door, and on the second attempt the door flew open, lighting up the store room at the back of the store. Before entering Joel waited a few moments to see if any infected came to investigate the noise, but nothing. He stepped inside, reaching for the switch on his torch, when he heard the distinctive sound of a Clicker screeching from somewhere inside the room.

"Oh shit" Joel said under his breath as he dived behind a container hoping to avoid being detected just yet.

* * *

"Okay… okay" Ellie reassured herself as she opened the book. The first page revealing a photo of Ellie and Riley, which Riley had taken on an old camera they had found, below the photo, written in blue ink, said "Ellie" and "Riley".

"I wish we could have figured it out" was all Ellie could say as she was fighting a losing battle against her emotions.

Ellie flicked to the next page quickly, trying to keep herself together. She was confronted by a crumpled piece of paper attached to the page, it was a not from Riley moaning about one of her teachers. Ellie laughed as she read through it, remembering people who she completely forgot about. Waves of memories came back as she kept reading the note intensely, trying to relive all of them.

Ellie spent the next half an hour flipping through the pages looking for things that would remind her of Riley. She wanted her back now more than ever, but nothing she could do would bring her back. She stopped reading and looked up, suddenly she realised that Joel should have been back a while ago.

"Where the hell is he?" Ellie asked herself. She considered if she should go out looking for him, but she had no idea where he could be, and if Joel found her out of the room she would be in massive trouble. Instead, Ellie slipped back into the memories of Riley and tried to keep herself busy until Joel got back, having no idea that Joel was in danger.


End file.
